Football has never been the Japanese tea ceremony. It is not a school of manners either. It has, yes, some virtues but they are not greater than its defects. Still, disbelievers and realists, we like football: it means returning to carefree childhood for 90 minutes. For this reason, what was seen on Sunday at the Santiago Bernabéu was as regrettable as those lynchings of the strange child in the class, what today they call bullying.
“That's how he always did it in Copacabana,” the great Vinícius said yesterday in Marca, to confirm that he scored with his shoulder and not with his forearm. Don't miss out on humor! The statement results in that pitiful reflex of denying the obvious because of your colors. Is it so difficult to accept that arbitration has benefited you beyond reason?
There have already been many VAR refereeing scandals. Without going any further, RCD Espanyol was relegated two seasons ago due to a 2-2 draw in Valencia (they disallowed a legal goal and omitted a foul prior to the Valencian tie). Espanyol was not relegated due to that result but it was an injustice to a desperate club, which was struggling not to drown. Injustice was overshadowed: everything depends on the category of the victims. And in this there are only two teams in the League that should not talk much because similar arbitrations and VAR decisions would never be inflicted on them. One or two, maybe. Three in a game, never.
Sunday was a black day for football lovers. You cannot punish a bottom team, Almería, with such viciousness, which was playing the game of its life against one of the best teams in the world, in one of the best stadiums in the world.
The three VAR decisions – only one correct one, in my opinion – plus a blind eye to Vinícius, whose desire to do things better did not last long – what an elbow he hits in the face of his marker, without the ball – meant re-arbitrate the match and lead to a suspicion: Real Madrid had to take the three points. Distort the arbitration work and ensure – it is difficult – that technology makes mistakes and has bad results. Along the way, from a quiet room, they destroyed Hernández Maeso's little boy, “sold” by his colleague Hernández Hernández. That in a single match the underdogs win twice has merit...
Arbitration like this cannot be repeated, nonsense after nonsense. And neither should referees limit themselves to asking for more collaboration and respect when it would be enough to give up the role from an isolated room, without their hearts racing. Ah! Some sanction will fall on them, right?
